


steal your heart away

by bevioletskies



Series: fic prompts & drabbles [14]
Category: Ant-Man (Movies), Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Thieves, Alternative Universe - FBI, F/M, Fluff, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-19 05:27:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16528280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bevioletskies/pseuds/bevioletskies
Summary: “There’s this person...they’ve been stealing lots of tech from some of the best labs in the world. We’re trying to find a connection between all the stuff they’ve taken to see if we can figure out their next move, but they’re good.Reallygood.”Cassie nodded, reaching for a particular photograph, one of the clearest ones yet - a feminine figure in a fitted militant-like suit, with a blur of some sort of clear material flitting behind her. They almost looked like wings. “Does she have a name?”Scott shook his head. “I wish it were that easy. All we know about her is her codename...the Wasp.”(Anonymous fic prompt: FBI agent Scott Lang has been trying - and failing - to apprehend the elusive thief only known as the Wasp)





	steal your heart away

**Author's Note:**

> There are mild variants on scenes from _Ant-Man and the Wasp_ but since this an AU, there are no true spoilers if you haven't seen it yet. Fic title is from the song [Steal Your Heart Away](https://open.spotify.com/track/06c08ve2aODGVHZwjWTxsR?si=0S0Yr47ZQJi3NeYpxVRN4g) by Fleetwood Mac, because even though I don't need to use old-school songs to name non-Peter/Gamora fics, it's too much of a habit at this point.

“Daddy?”

Scott was promptly startled out of his thoughts at the sound of his daughter’s voice, almost scattering all the documents spread out over the dining table in surprise. He glanced up to see Cassie standing in the dark hallway, her eyes wide and glossy with unshed tears. “Hey, peanut, are you okay? Come here.” She quickly ran to him, climbing onto his lap and burrowing her face into his chest. He rubbed her back soothingly. “Did you have a nightmare?”

“Yeah,” she mumbled, twisting her fingers into the front of his bathrobe. “I wanna be brave and fight bad guys like you, but...sometimes I think about all the stuff that could happen when you’re out there. I don’t wanna lose you, Daddy.”

“You’re not gonna lose me, peanut. You know why?” he asked.

“...‘cos you’re really good at your job?” Cassie said unconvincingly.

Regardless, he laughed. “Attagirl. Besides...and don’t tell anyone, this is super top-secret FBI stuff...but the bad guy I’m after right now? They haven’t hurt anyone...yet.” At the mild alarm on Cassie’s face, he quickly added, “And I’m not gonna let them. Besides, I don’t think it’s _people_ they’re after.”

Cassie shuffled closer to the table to get a better look at the files Scott was currently poring over at two AM on a Sunday morning. Most of it was beyond her grasp - coded jargon, complex vocabulary and the like - but the pictures were what drew her in, photos upon photos of a blurry figure that seemed to disappear into thin air, evading nearly every security camera of every building they’d ever broken into. “I wanna know more,” she said, brightening somewhat.

Scott hesitated, unsure of the consequences if he told her too much, but he figured a vague description couldn’t hurt. “There’s this person...they’ve been stealing lots of tech from some of the best labs in the world. We’re trying to find a connection between all the stuff they’ve taken to see if we can figure out their next move, but they’re good. _Really_ good.”

Cassie nodded, reaching for a particular photograph, one of the clearest ones yet - a feminine figure in a fitted militant-like suit, with a blur of some sort of clear material flitting behind her. They almost looked like wings. “Does she have a name?”

Scott shook his head. “I wish it were that easy. All we know about her is her codename...the Wasp.”

* * *

“Scotty! Man, you look rough.” Scott was practically dragging his feet as he walked into the office the following morning, shrugging on his jacket before any of his bosses could see him without it. He scratched at the morning stubble he’d forgotten to shave, yawning profusely. “Cassie keep you up or something?”

“Nah, I was looking over all the stuff we’ve got on Wasp. We’ve been chasing her for ten months, Luis, I was hoping we’d have _something_ by now.” Scott sighed in defeat, plopping down in his cubicle across from Luis’s. “Maybe it was a mistake for them to give me this case. I know they thought I’d be the right guy for the job ‘cos of my master’s, but I don’t think the science she’s after is what matters here, it’s the Wasp herself. I have a hunch, but if I could just...talk to her or something, figure out more than just a codename...y’know what, never mind. It sounds stupid when I say it out loud.” He threw his pen down on his desk in frustration.

“Look alive, people, we have a Wasp sighting in San Jose! Active crime scene, and that means you, Lang! Car’s waiting for you downstairs!”

The entire floor seemed to explode with chaos, people running to grab their jackets and belongings, shouting at each other over the noise in order to make sense of what was happening. Scott, meanwhile, was frozen in his chair in shock. Luis was undeterred, clapping him on the shoulder. “Hey, you might be psychic, bro! Let’s do this!”

Once Scott had shaken himself out of his stunned state, he and the other agents made their way to the laboratory - an unusual choice for Wasp, given that she was almost always spotted in more distant locations, as far as the other side of the world - and surrounded the building immediately, promptly evacuating all of its occupants, keeping their guns at the ready.

“I’m going in,” Scott called once everyone was in position. “Watch my back.”

With a few steady, calming breaths, Scott went inside, staying conscious of his deserted surroundings. It was a typical research laboratory, filled to the brim with expensive equipment and computers set up in every room that were easily valued at thousands, if not millions of dollars apiece. He recognized a few machines here and there, but most of it seemed far beyond his expertise.

“Scotty - _oh_ \- ”

Scott whipped around just in time to watch Luis and the other agents who had followed him in getting knocked out in the blink of an eye, though by what, he couldn’t quite tell. All he saw was a blur that went so fast, he wasn’t sure he hadn’t just imagined it in the adrenaline rush. He lifted his gun slightly higher, sweat beginning to form on his brow. He knelt to briefly check their pulses before straightening up. “FBI!” he shouted. “Come on, Wasp, I know it’s you.”

Then something struck him clean across the face - then a kick to the gut - and finally, a blow to his back. He collapsed to the floor, wheezing for breath, watching helplessly as his gun clattered across the room. “You don’t know anything,” her voice hissed, low and dangerous. He couldn’t tell which direction it was coming from; all he could hear aside from her voice was an uncomfortable buzz, almost like it was right in his ear.

“Then help me underst - understand,” Scott groaned. He rolled onto his back to clutch at his chest, willing himself to get his breath back. “I know you’re not selling the stuff you’ve stolen. We’ve been trackin’ all the black markets and back alleys for months and haven’t seen a single thing. You’re actually _using_ it, aren’t you?”

She instantly appeared before him, the front of her helmet mere inches away from his nose. Scott let out a startled shout, scrambling backward on his hands and feet. “Get out of my way, agent. I’ve already come this far, and I’m not letting you ruin this for me.”

“Tell me what ‘this’ is, then! Maybe we can help you. Maybe we can make a deal - ”

She promptly stepped on his torso, grinding the heel of her boot into his ribcage. He grunted in discomfort, though he finally had the strength to lift his head and get a look at her - though her face was fully obscured, he could now see the oddly-shaped chestplate of her bodysuit, the strange device on her wrists, and _oh_ , they _were_ wings - “I can’t trust anyone but myself to get the job done.”

“That sounds like a terrible life philosophy,” Scott coughed, struggling to sit up so he could grab her, but to no avail; she had him pinned down tight. “Look, I’ve been where you’re at before. I got desperate. I started stealing stuff, too. But I turned my life around, and so can you. Let us take you in, and maybe we can find a compromise that works for both of us. One that doesn’t have to end in arrest...or something worse.”

She laughed then, something dark and awful that made Scott shudder. “It must be nice.”

He looked at her curiously. “What?”

“To have hope.”

Before he could respond, she knocked him out cold.

* * *

Scott stirred awake not too long after. His head was still throbbing from where he’d been struck, his wrists and ankles aching from the ropes tied around them - _wait_. He jolted in alarm, realizing he was bound to a metal folding chair in what appeared to be a laboratory - that is, a different laboratory than the one he’d just been in - old and abandoned and decrepit, smelling of stale air and dust.

“Wasp?” he called. He began picking at the knots as best he could, but they seemed to be going nowhere. “Wasp, come on. This is getting a little ridiculous.”

She reappeared before him out of nowhere once again, still fully costumed. She bent at the waist to examine him closer, her head tilting side-to-side like a curious child. “It’s Scott, right? Scott Lang?”

“How did - ” She promptly held up his ID badge with an exasperated sigh “ - oh, right.”

She straightened up, folding her arms across her chest. “What does the FBI know about me?”

“You really think I’m just gonna _tell_ you?” he said incredulously.

She walked away to drag another chair over to a stop in front of him, sitting down with an almost fluid grace to her movements. He could only just make out her eyes through the tinted visor, staring intensely back at him. “You were the one who suggested we work together.”

“I gotta say, I don’t think holding me hostage really counts,” Scott snarked.

“I needed to know if I could trust you. I had to take you away from the others.” She lowered her head so he couldn’t see her eyes. “Most of my run-ins with the authorities, they’re all the same. No words exchanged, no warnings, just…‘shoot on sight’.”

“And yet, you never got hit. You have some sort of...shrinking tech, right?” Scott guessed. “That’s how you keep disappearing and reappearing like that. Either that, or you’re a ghost.”

She let out a startled laugh. “Is that FBI intel, or your own wild conspiracy theory?”

“My intuition,” he shrugged. “So am I right?”

She hesitated, lifting her head to meet his gaze again. “Yes...you’re right.”

“And I did a little searching through every database we had access to, looking for other people who might’ve gone by ‘Wasp’,” Scott continued. He couldn’t help but feel a little proud of himself when he sensed the sudden hitch of tension in her shoulders. “There were a handful of ‘em, but there was one that caught my eye. So, SHIELD collapsed about two years ago after all their information got leaked to the public, including some stuff about their top-secret operations. There were two people who reportedly went on missions using shrinking tech, and one of them went by ‘Wasp’. Does the name Janet Van Dyne mean anything to you?”

She turned away fully, just quick enough so Scott couldn’t hear her tiny gasp of breath. “No.”

“Janet Van Dyne and her partner-slash-husband, Doctor Henry Pym, went missing thirty years ago. Kind of an obscure reference for your whole shtick, don’t you think?” he continued.

“Please...”

“Except they had a daughter who got lost in the foster care system, and no one’s heard of her ever since.” He paused, swallowing thickly. Now he almost felt bad for bringing it up, but he knew it had to be done. “That’s you, isn’t it?”

She slowly turned around, her helmet retracting back into the neck of the suit to fully reveal her face. Wasp - no, Hope Van Dyne - looked to be at least a few years younger than Scott, with dark hair scraped back into a ponytail, piercing eyes, and a smattering of freckles across her nose that made her look more youthful in contrast to the prominent smile lines around her mouth. She looked despondent, though also begrudgingly impressed. “You’re smarter than you look,” she said half-heartedly.

“I was up pretty late last night,” Scott admitted. “Drank a _lot_ of coffee. SHIELD files go deep.”

She couldn’t help but smile, shaking her head amusedly. “Fine. You’ve figured me out, agent. Now what? Where do we go from here?”

“I can’t exactly _go_ anywhere tied up like this,” he pointed out.

“I’m not letting you go,” she insisted, getting to her feet. She stared down at him, her eyes growing cold again. “Not unless you have an actual plan.”

“My pep-pep always said that if you wanna do something right, you gotta make a list,” he said, brightening. Hope looked unsure of whether to laugh or knock him out again, her brow furrowed at the absurdity of his statement. “So, here it is - first, you tell me what you’ve been doing with all that tech and let me go. Then I take you into custody, and we _don’t_ put you in jail. Well, unless you’ve done some serious property damage that we don’t know about. So...I guess that’s part of step two. Finally, we give you the chance to return everything and pay damages, maybe work out a deal.”

“I...can’t return them. Not yet.” Hope shook her head vehemently, folding her arms defensively across her chest. “I need them. You were right, I’ve been using everything I’ve taken. I haven’t sold a single thing, and I don’t intend to.”

“Then tell me what you’re doing with it,” Scott repeated patiently, his hands finally relaxing behind his back. “I’m sorta familiar with some of the equipment, I’ve got a master’s in engineering. Help me understand.”

She took a decisive breath. “Just because you know my identity, it doesn’t mean I’ve decided to trust you.”

He shrugged again. “I know. But I figured it didn’t hurt to ask.”

Hope pursed her lips in consideration, settling back into the chair opposite him. Another minute passed before she spoke again. “I was seven years old when my parents had to leave on a ‘business trip’. There was nothing unusual about it compared to the others, only this one was last-minute. It was two in the morning when my nanny came into my room in tears, weeping about a phone call. A phone call that said my parents had gone missing on their ‘trip’ and were never heard from again.”

“In their will, they had me sent to relatives who didn’t care about me and were only after my parents’ money like some cliche cartoon villain. Eventually, I was put into foster care. And I was so... _angry_ about everything that had happened. So I spent years learning how to fight, reading all the notes and studies my parents had left behind. I just had a gut feeling, and I can’t really explain it, that convinced me they were still out there somewhere. And about ten months ago, I had...a dream, I guess. They were alive, Agent Lang.” She let out a choked sob. “They spoke to me, they were _looking_ for me. They said they were stuck in the Quantum Realm and that I needed to build a quantum tunnel to bring them back.”

“Did they just put ‘quantum’ in front of everything?” Scott said dubiously. At Hope’s glare, he recoiled.

“ _That’s_ what all this tech is about, Agent Lang. To get my mom and dad back. When I do, I’ll return everything. I’ll pay in whatever way I have to - money, jail time - I just _need_ to do this before it’s too late. Wouldn’t you do the same?” Her voice broke on the last word, her eyes becoming glossy with tears.

“I, uh...I have a daughter.” Scott smiled a little just thinking of her. Before he left for work that morning, she’d been ecstatic about showing him what she’d learned in gymnastics, though he insisted she demonstrate _before_ breakfast and not _after_. “Her mom and I aren’t together anymore, but I know we’d still do anything to keep her safe.”

Hope nodded. “What’s her name?”

His smile softened further. “Cassie.”

She smiled in return, wiping her eyes hastily. “That’s a pretty name.”

They held each other’s gaze for a moment, and just like that, a sense of understanding seemed to pass between them, the tension melting out of Hope’s shoulders and Scott’s back. “Alright, here’s the thing. I bet if I let you just walk out of here - ”

“Let me? You’re the one that’s tied up,” she reminded him.

“Details,” he scoffed, flapping his hands dismissively before remembering she couldn’t see them. “What I’m trying to say is, you clearly don’t need anyone else to help you finish the job. But you’re gonna need me if you wanna do it _legally_.”

“Which means…”

“I wanna help. I would never wanna be the cause of someone not getting to be with their parents again. Let me take you in and make your case. I’ll get ‘em to put you on house arrest, but let you finish your work under supervision. Then...we can talk consequences.” He winced a little at his lack of tact, but held his breath regardless, wondering if this was the last push he needed.

Scott watched carefully as Hope got to her feet, moving closer and closer until she was knelt right in front of him - it was then that he noticed how distractingly attractive she was, though he wasn’t about to let that affect his judgment - and in one quick motion, she sliced through the rope that bound his wrists. His arms finally fell to his sides, his shoulders aching from being held taut for so long. Another cut, and his legs were freed as well.

“Don’t make me regret this,” she warned, straightening up. Still, she found her smile returning while she watched Scott shake out his stiff limbs like a wet dog. There was something strangely endearing about his attitude, so unlike all the other FBI agents she’d encountered before. It made her wonder how he’d ended up here in the first place, and if maybe, someday, she would get the chance to ask. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but lead the way, Agent Lang.”

“Gonna need these first.” Scott brandished a pair of handcuffs with an apologetic grimace. “I swear, this is just for looks.”

* * *

A month had passed since Scott had taken Hope in, and he’d heard next to nothing ever since. He hounded his supervisors, begging for a scrap of news on how she was doing, if she was following the conditions of her house arrest or if they’d thrown her in prison after all, but no one was giving him any answers, and her file had gone untouched ever since her initial interrogation. He went on a handful of assignments that gave him far less trouble than she ever had, but his curiosity was beginning to get the better of him.

One evening, he was sitting at home, watching a movie with Cassie, when his phone rang. It was a number he didn’t recognize. “Hello?”

“Agent Lang? Um...Scott, right?”

He bolted upright, startling Cassie. “Yeah...Hope?”

“Yes.” She let out a soft laugh. “I just thought you might want to know...I got my parents back today. I never thought it would happen, but they’re sitting in the living room, arguing over schematics like they always do, and...I never knew I could miss the sound of it so much. And I wanted to say thank you. For listening to me.”

“Hey, that’s awesome,” Scott said sincerely. “And it’s no big deal. Just doing my job.”

“I wouldn’t say that. The others were just doing their job, but you were...something else.” She inhaled sharply, clearing her throat. “Speaking of your job, the FBI is sending a team to my house tomorrow so they can pack up all the equipment. Will I be seeing you there?”

“I, you know, yeah, yeah, probably. I’d have to check with my boss.” Cassie shot him a weird look from the other side of the couch.

“Okay. I’ll see you then.” She promptly hung up, though Scott detected a joyfulness in her tone that hadn’t quite been there before. He grinned, shaking his head to himself.

“Was that the Wasp, Daddy?” Cassie asked curiously.

“It was. Weird, right?” Scott chuckled.

“So she’s not really a bad guy after all,” Cassie reasoned, grinning toothily.

“I guess not.”

Scott arrived at Hope’s house - her childhood home that had been abandoned up until recently - the following morning with an apparent nervous energy, so much so that even Luis had to comment on it. “Relax, man, you’re acting like a kid on his first date or something,” Luis laughed. He paused. “Wait a second. You got a thing for the Wasp?”

“Her name is Hope,” Scott said a little too quickly. Luis’s furrowed brows only intensified. “Just...c’mon, let’s go inside.”

The house was already swarming with FBI agents, wrapping and labeling every last piece of equipment with utmost precision. Scott’s eyes scanned over the return addresses printed on the labels, all the places Hope had stolen from. Despite the obvious wrongness of her actions, he still couldn’t help but be impressed by her resourcefulness, given that she’d been living in the abandoned Pym Tech lab for so long with almost nothing to her name.

“Agent Lang.” It was then that Hope approached him with a friendly grin. He almost didn’t recognize her with her hair down, wearing a T-shirt and jeans instead of her suit. “You made it.”

“Yeah, turns out I was assigned here,” Scott replied, thinking back to the ten minutes he’d spent in his superior’s office just an hour ago, insisting he get to drop by. “How are you feeling?”

“It’ll be weird to not be surrounded by all this equipment, but I’d take having my parents over any machine _any_ day.” She gestured to an older couple talking to one of the agents, who then came over to join them. Hope’s mother had a kindness in her eyes, a sense of mischief, almost, whereas her father...Scott shrunk a little under his sharp, analytical gaze. “Mom, Dad, this is Agent Scott Lang. He’s the one who convinced the FBI to help me find you.”

“Oh, we’re forever in your debt, Agent Lang,” Janet beamed, flinging her arms around him in a sudden bear hug. Hope and Hank let out noises of alarm, watching her incredulously as she stepped back to let Scott breathe. “We spent _years_ trying to get back to our little girl, but we weren’t sure it would ever happen.”

“You did good,” Hank said gruffly, extending a stiff hand. Scott shook it, still unsure of what to think.

“Glad I could help, but it was all Hope’s doing,” Scott insisted. “I only told my boss to go easy on her. You know, I’ve got a daughter of my own. If something ever happened to her, I would’ve done _anything_ to get her back, too.”

“Children are something special, aren’t they?” Janet sighed happily, reaching to put an arm around Hope’s shoulders. “If I had to come back to a world without my jellybean, I don’t - ”

“ _Mom_ ,” Hope protested, slinking out of her mother’s grasp. “Agent Lang, can we talk outside for a second?”

He followed her out onto the front porch, keeping a close eye on the ankle monitor still diligently blinking away on her leg. “What’s up?”

“My whole life is going to be so different now,” Hope said softly. “I still have the trial and everything, and I owe a lot of money to a _lot_ of people, but I get to be part of a family again. I get to be someone’s daughter. And Mom, as embarrassing as she can be...she’s right. I really don’t know how to repay you.”

“You don’t have to do anything, okay? Go be with your parents, you’ve waited long enough,” Scott said gently.

“Thank you, Agent Lang.” Before Scott knew it, Hope had thrown her arms around him, too, sinking into his shoulder with a relieved sigh, her eyes squeezing shut.

It took him a moment to return it, his hands coming to rest on the small of her back. He closed his eyes as well. “Call me Scott.”

The front door swung open with a loud creak, causing them to immediately jump apart like they’d done something wrong. “Hope...when did this happen?” Hank’s voice sent chills up Scott’s spine.

“Nothing’s happening,” Hope groaned, fixing her father with a pointed glare. “Give me another minute and I’ll head back inside, okay?” With a long-suffering sigh of a man who had thirty years of parenting to catch up on, Hank shut the door. “Sorry about that. My parents have been acting like I’m still seven years old or something.”

“They’re worried about you. I can relate,” Scott chuckled. “But you really should go back in.”

“Shouldn’t you as well?”

“Okay, so, funny story...I didn’t exactly get assigned here.” Scott winced. “I actually have another assignment downtown, I just asked my boss if I could spare a few minutes to drop in on my way over.”

“Is that right?” Hope said, her smile widening. Unsure of what else to say, Scott mumbled goodbye and awkwardly waved, turning to walk down the stairs and to his car. It was when he reached the sidewalk that she called out to him again. “Wait...Scott.”

He paused, turning on his heel. “Yeah?”

“You probably heard, but my parents are getting reinstated as members of the Pym Tech board next week. They’re throwing a corporate party to celebrate.” Hope lingered in the doorway, biting her lip in a way that made Scott’s heartbeat pick up a little faster than usual. “I don’t really fit in with the executive crowd, so I could use a plus one that _isn’t_ only interested in talking about shares and liabilities. You know, if you’re looking for something to do.”

Scott grinned, a wide, unabashedly goofy grin. “I’ll be there.”

Hope ducked her head, almost shyly, to hide the grin on her face, waving goodbye as he got into his car. She turned to walk back into the house with a contented sigh. There was a long road ahead of her - legally _and_ emotionally - and yet, as cheesy as it sounded...she was finally hopeful once again.

**Author's Note:**

> I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that my first full-blown Scott/Hope fic is an AU since I'm far better at those than anything else! I'm still a little iffy on my characterization of them (it's a bit difficult trying to capture Rudd's comedic timing) but I hope this worked out regardless. Also, I know next to nothing about FBI procedures despite the fact I'm literally taking a law class right now, so please forgive any inaccuracies.
> 
> I'm currently taking Scott/Hope fic prompts, and you can read this fic on [tumblr](https://bevioletskies.tumblr.com/post/179945557624/scotthope-au-prompt-fbi-agent-scott-lang-is) if you'd like! Thanks so much for reading, comments and kudos would be much appreciated, and I hope you enjoyed :)


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